The present invention relates to a method of adding calcium, in the form of calcium chloride, to liquid feed supplements for animals, particularly ruminant animals.
Unlike soluble elemental sources such as phosphorous and sulfur, calcium is generally not incorporated into liquid feed supplements. Calcium carbonate, which is generally employed in dry feed supplements is not desirable for liquid feed supplements in view of its relative insolubility. Moreover, phosphoric acid or phosphorous salts tend to react with soluble calcium compounds, forming insoluble precipitates. This is highly undesirable for liquid feed supplements where all ingredients are preferably maintained in solution. According to the method of Kail (U.S. Pat. No. 3,523,798), calcium chloride is incorporated into such liquid feed supplements by first preparing a water solution of urea and calcium chloride, which is subsequently mixed with feed supplement bases, such as molasses and the like, which contain phosphorous and sulfur sources. However, soluble calcium compounds have not proven feasible for direct incorporation into liquid feed supplements or into liquid feed supplements containing non-protein nitrogen sources such as, for example, urea and the like, because of gelling and sedimentation problems.